…keep things simple. The recipe that is. For the most part. Not only because, usually, the fewer ingredients the better but also because it’s nice to imagine someone you care for, maybe sombody far away where you can only visit in mind and heart, prepping and eating it with you across that disappearing distance, their there and your here becoming the same place, at least for the short while it takes to make a hearty Italian toast. So: Tomato Bruschetta –

Ingredients

Good crusty bread

Vine-ripened tomatoes cleaned and peeled at the last minute

2-3 sweet basil leaves

Good ev olive oil

Salt

Lemon rind (grated)

Thick cream or fresh cheese

And good garlic – never the Chinese imports. Never. Red or pink garlic if you can find it, but do hold up the clove to nose to make check if it smells full and sweet as garlic should.

Instructions

First, make the topping: rough dice the tomato, basil, lemon rind, salt to taste, ev olive oil and mix in a bowl. Then toast slices of the bread: on a grill, in the oven, over a fire, however – but toast them well. And do not use… Wonder bread type or any wimpy, gummy, soft-grain, chewing-gum btrad-like industrial goo, please. You need some good crusty bread here. Go to a real bakery and buy a loaf. Or make it at home. Anyway.

While the toast is still warm-hot, rub all over with fresh-sliced garlic on both sides, even the crust. Spread a thin layer of the fresh cheese over top on one side. Now spoon over the sauce – and it’s ready to go. Add whatever you like to that, avocado, Tabasco sauce, sun-dried tomatoes even. And… with a good beer or easy red wine or anything, basically… it’s a great meal. Healthy, delicious, better than most pizzas, much better than any fast-grilled patty and you can go beserk on the rustic toppings, from sausage and portobellos to raosted bell pepper, ecc.

Maybe hop on-line, give a faraway friend a call, prep and eat the bruschetta together – at least in heart and mind…

Ah, and in case someone in your life, or you, likes to read, wants some pasta recipes or just to laugh: The pasta papers, vl. 1 at Amazon (reduced for the week of the 24th of July.)